Bill Whalen

California’s environmental community has a Dickensian feel to it these days. These are truly the best of times and the worst of times. On the upside, eco-lovin’ interests hold the upper hand in Sacramento and, for that matter, in most every other corner of the state where politicians smell good PR. A lawsuit against polluting […]

According to New York City’s Department of Finance, 159 of the Union Nations’ 199 member-states owe their American host city some $18 million in unpaid parking fines. Leading the way with more than 17,000 of the 150,000 unpaid citations: Egypt, a deadbeat to the tune of nearly $2 million. Not that our friends at the […]

A small town of less than 2,000 households, Hurricane, West Virginia, is betting its future on its location amidst “Advantage Alley,” a five-county partnership promoting economic development along the state’s Interstate 64 corridor. Yet, ironically, the town suffers from a major disadvantage. Hurricane, it turns out, is caught the eye of a storm now threatening […]

To know California is to appreciate her identity crisis: Is she more a nation, a state, or some entity in between? It should come as no surprise, then, that California’s policymakers likewise find themselves in conflict — with each other. Take the example of education. Is it the domain of the Governor and his administration, […]

With a $15.8 billion price tag — six times its original estimate and double the price of the Panama Canal — to say nothing of some 12,000 design modifications (make that 12,001 once they’ve figured how to plug all the leaks), one wonders why any sane state would want to replicate the experience of the […]